Jul 13, 2009

Pre-Tribulation Rapture

J.R. Hall

By J.R. Hall

Q. A friend of mine believes in the Post-Trib rapture position. Do you have any arguments I can use to convince him of Pre-Trib? ~ Anonymous

A. Post-Trib proponents say the rapture occurs just as Christ is descending to earth at the 2nd coming. If the rapture happened as they say, then why immediately afterwards would Christ need to separate the sheep from the goats? (Matthew 25:32-46) You see Christ separates the Righteous from the wicked at the rapture. So why would he need to do it again after Armageddon at this famous ‘Sheep – Goat’ judgment.

We can (or should) therefore agree that this passage in Matthew 25 doesn't make much sense when compared to the position of the post Tribulation rapture. Christ would not separate the sheep from the goats at the rapture, and then (suffering from amnesia) do it again after Armageddon.

If we continue to look at this passage, more problems are presented.

According to the Post-Trib Rapture idea, we get our translated, glorified bodies and we go up to meet Christ in the air (rapture) and then we immediately come down with Him at the 2nd Coming.

According to the scriptures, on that day, Christ’s foot touches the mount olives and it splits in two. He then defeats the armies of the Antichrist and throws the Antichrist and the false prophet in the lake of fire.

We then see from Matt 25 that he also gathers the people on earth and separates the sheep from the goats. The Goats go to punishment and the sheep go into the millennium as 'humans' with their natural bodies… but wait a minute! All the sheep were just raptured, so they all have glorified bodies, so who enters the millennium?

The question seems odd at first, until we take notice that the bible tells us that Human beings, in their natural bodies are alive and well in the millennium. And it also notes that they are gentiles included by the words ‘all nations’ in Revelation 20:9.

People... regular people with the ability to sin must enter the millennium, because we know at the end of the millennium, when Satan is loosed for a time, and most of the people again rebel against God. There is no sin found in those with Glorified bodies, so it must be sinful humans that populate the earth on that time or there would be no future rebellion.

You see here we have a major contradiction in accepting the Post-Trib Rapture position.

When proving a theology, it isn't how many verses that support it, as there are several that can be interpreted to support a few of them. The key lies in verses that contradict it. After many years of study I have never found a verse that contradicts the idea of the Pre-Tribulation rapture. That is why I believe it.

We know that the bible is correct and contains no errors. So if we find something in the bible that contradicts our own theology, then it is not the bible, but our theology that is at fault.

Once we realize this one simple fact. Discerning God's word becomes a whole lot easier.

There is more we could discuss, and perhaps a future article is in the making.

Until next time… Serve your King.